John and Craig descend into development hell to look at films that almost but never quite existed. Using both widely-publicized and little-known examples, they examine common patterns that keep movies frozen in script form.

We also follow up on solar storms, writer education and genres people should see at least one of. We then answer listener questions on writing empathetically, late-career stamina, non-English dialogue, multi-part movies, and the Scriptnotes theme itself.

In our bonus segment for premium members, if John and Craig were never paid to write in the screenplay format again, would they still do it?

Links:

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Birdigo on Steam
Aurora by David Koepp
Pale Flower
Deep Red
Suspiria
Hands on a Hard Body
American Movie
Wonderland
Hands on a Hardbody the musical
Cure
Pulse
Moft magnetic wallet stand
Total Party Skill podcast
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Craig Mazin on Instagram
John August on Bluesky and Instagram
Outro by Steve Pietrowski (send us yours!)
Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.

Email us at ask@johnaugust.com

You can download the episode here.

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